I think a big part of the failure is the poor marketing. Where do you see them advertised? When can you actually pick up and hold one? IF you find them at places like Best Buy, they are locked down, the stylus is missing, and the sales people haven’t a clue what they are. Who would buy one?

I can’t tell you the number of times I could have sold mine on the spot. I’ve literally held an impromptu “mini-demo” of my tablet at the TSA security line in several airports to agents (“I WANT one like that; where do I get it?!?”), countless airline passengers and flight attendants and a host of others. Reading, note-taking during meetings, magazine reading (Zinio), movie watching, sales presentations at the restaurant tablet, actually getting work done in cramped, cattle-class seats in airplanes, the list goes on.

So yes, I’d love to see Apple come out with a touch/digitized Mac. Perhpas with their PR savvy, they could finally help people discover the convenience these crazy little machines offer.

The first is price. In order to make a decent touchscrren-based laptop, you have a much more expensive screen than you otherwsie would. And when price point makes a difference, you see lesser hardware being used to keep that down. (Or you see a very expensive one otherwise.) When all is said and done, the screen is going to be one of the most expensive components of the device, and most people want a lower pricepoint than the components will allow. I think the proof of the pudding is in the popularity of the Eee type PCs. Like their UMPC cousins, they are small in size. But the pricepoint different is very high. In the end, I think people mostly want something small and portable, and with a portable price to go along with it.

The second issue is one of familiarity. For better or for worse, the QWERTY keyboard has been with us for over a century. It’s like a worn old pair of shoes-it’s comfortable (in its own way) and it’s familiar. Getting people past that paradigm has to be done in a way in which they will say “I wonder how we ever did this before!” And while the Vista version of Tablet PCs is an improvement over the XP 2005 Tablet edition, it still leaves something to be desired, even for enthusiasts.

I think for a touch-enabled PC, you need a serious revision of the OS. heavy OS’s like Vista or even OS X have a lot of built-in things that aren’t typically needed, or are at least unwanted, for a computer that at least purports to be a mobile one. Battery life is important for these machines, and they have failed so far in this respect because they either require expensive additional batteries that also add weight, or the installed/included battery lasts for 3 hours before needing a recharge.

If Apple or microsoft want to build a touchscreen PC, they need to build an OS from the ground up to take all of this into account. If they won’t do that, then they should not bother.

Woadan